Howley

The Cosmopolitan Howley corridor in the Northern Territory is made up of several gold bearing deposits that include the Howley open pit and the Cosmo underground mines. There are also several additional highly mineralised ore bodies, all within the Burnside tenements, located about 150 kilometres south of Darwin and 44 kilometres from Adelaide River. The mine site includes a 200 personnel mining camp. Ore from the Howley Mine is treated at the processing plant established at the Cosmo Mine.

The Howley Ore Body is two Kilometres From the Historic Cosmo Open pit Mine
The most southern point of the Howley ore body is situated only two kilometres north west of of the old Cosmo open pit mine. The gold mineralisation follows a north west direction for a distance of about four kilometres consisting of several different deposits. These individual deposits are part of the wider highly prospective ore body that extends to some considerable depth. The Howley deposit itself targets both the near surface deposit as well as the deeper mineralisation associated with the Cosmo gold system's northern extension.

The Howley Open pit sits on a Large Low Grade Deposit.
To date the Howley ore body is a big low grade open pit gold resource with drilling only being undertaken to a depth of 100 metres. Future drilling is to concentrate on proving the shallow high grade shoots. Mining at the Howley open pit is undertaken by using the conventional open pit mining method by blasting the ore body, excavating the loosened rock, loading it onto haulage trucks and taking it to an ore pad for stockpiling. From there it will be taken by truck to the gold processing plant at the relocated Cosmo mill.

Gold Discovered at Howley in 1873
Gold was discovered along the Cosmopolitan Howley corridor in 1873 when the overland telegraph line was being constructed between Darwin and Adelaide. This find led to a period in the Northern Territory that saw alluvial mining being carried out by Chinese miners and lode mining by various English companies up until 1914. It has been estimated that 71,000 tonnes of gold bearing ore was mined during this period that produced 24,000 ounces at a recovery rate of around 10 grams a tonne.

Mining Declined at Howley Between 1910 and the 1970's
Mining and exploration began to decline midway through 1910 and didn't improve until the 1970's, other than minor exploration and mining on a small scale. From 1970 through to the 1980's mining companies once again started to show interest in the area with a new round of drill testing being employed. As a result, several small alluvial showings along the Howley deposit were mined between 1986 and 1990. One of these companies, Dominion Mining produced around 470,000 ounces of gold after mining almost seven million tonnes of ore grading at 2.1 grams a tonne between 1987 and 1995. Mines operating in the area at the time included; Big Howley, Chinese Howley, Chinese South, Phantom, and Cosmo Howley.

Northern Gold began exploring the area in 1996 and in 2004 defined high grade mineralised zones within the Cosmo Deeps ore body. GBS Gold began drilling in the same area in 2007 sourcing production from the Howley open pits. GBS identified a production level of between 75.000 and 100,000 ounces a year before it was placed in administration.
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